A sweatshirt-silent womanunwraps a turtlefor the ride homefrom a pet store

Such tendernesssuffuses these impervious surfacesthat implacable paradox seemsthe one true cost of admission

​

About the Author: Colin Dodds is a writer. His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in roughly three hundred publications, receiving accolades from luminaries including Norman Mailer and David Berman. Dodds’ shorter work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net Anthology, and his longer works have been finalists for the Trio House Press Louise Bogan Award and the 42 Miles Press Poetry Award, and semi-finalists for the Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize and the American Zoetrope Contest. Colin lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and daughter. See more of his work at thecolindodds.com.